SHELBY COUNTY —
Organizers for this year’s Festival of Lights have deemed the event a success and the benefits of the Festival are far-reaching into the community.
“We averaged 90 cars a night - up over the average 76 in 2010,” said chairman Tad Mayhall.
The Festival of Lights is displayed from mid-November to January 1 in Forest Park.
Since 2007 the Festival has seen a steady increase in the number of vehicles passing through and the amount of donations given.
“We had an extra 900 vehicles over the 2007 count,” Mayhall said. This year’s count was 3939.
“There was also an increase in bus traffic this year. Everything is heading the the right direction,” Mayhall said.
“Donations were up 20 percent over last year and up 45 percent over 2007,” Mayhall noted. “These donations are used to maintain and improve the displays from year to year.”
Forest Park superintendent Bill Bly has spent many hours during the past year working on the displays, changing out bulbs and giving the displays a fresh coat of paint.
“Changing the bulbs and repainting made stuff look brand new,” Bly said.
Bly said he worked a lot of the evenings in the booth and spoke with many of the visitors.
“There were a lot of good comments. I’m glad people liked it,” he said. “A lot of people said they’ll come back next year.”
Bly also made some of the smaller displays himself to fill in areas between the larger displays.
Visitors to the Festival come from within the state as well as across state lines, which translated into additional revenue for local businesses such as gas stations and restaurants.
“People understand the benefit of the lights for their family. It also has an economic impact on the town,” Mayhall said.
This is the second year the high school has been involved with projects in connection with the Festival.
The vocational department made Christmas trees for the Festival and turned it into a business this year for residents and businesses.
“This year there were more kids involved with business and welding classes dealing with operations and logistics. The accounting classes creating marketing and business plans,” Mayhall explained. “The partnership with the school is a key to success. We hope to help with more business opportunities for kids.”
Mayhall said the committee is looking into a grant to change the bulbs in the displays to LED lights. Using LEDs would make the displays more energy efficient and reduce the overall electricity expense for the park, benefiting other building such as the Senior Center and the Lions Club building.
The committee is looking for more help for next year’s Festival, including maintenance of the displays, setup, donation booth.
“We can still use more help. It doesn’t require much knowledge to paint or change bulbs. There’s a job for everybody,” Mayhall said.
Bly noted that help is accepted all year long, but more help is needed from August on.
“Just come on out to the park maintenance building Monday through Friday, 8:30 - 3:30,” Bly said.
Local News
Related Photos
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Nearly 4000 vehicles toured the Festival of Lights this year, according to committee figures. The Festival continues to increase each year, boosting local businesses, and plans are being made to make it better next year. Daily Union file photo
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